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This is the story of Heinrich, a 30 year-old single descendent of Austrian immigrants, who dreamed of opening an Austrian bake and coffee shop in New York City. WHERE THE CLIPPING HABIT STARTS
For generations, Heinrich's family were quintessential clippers -- saving newspapers ARTICLES of every newsworthy event, from the sinking of the Titanic, to the end of World War II, to man's first landing on the moon, to more recently the events surrounding nine-eleven. In addition to news-clippings, Heinrich's mother instilled in him the habit of collecting supermarket COUPONS, magazine rebate promotions, movie reviews, baking RECIPES, and virtually anything associated with Heinrich's woodworking and model-building hobbies. When his father died, his mother moved in with him, where they shared his two bedroom apartment. As a result of the clipping habit -- which had doubled since his mother moved in -- Heinrich had lost all of the SPACE in his kitchen to bake. Clippings were everywhere, on the counter, in the drawers, even in the baking bowls and in the pot rack under the oven. Though he seemed to find pleasure in clipping, and sending these clippings to other family members, he had lost the BALANCE and thus his clipping habit had overwhelmed everything else. THE SOLUTION Getting him organized so that he had the proper space and equipment to enable him to bake and clip harmoniously was quite a daunting task. Setting up a new filing system in an out of the way corner of the kitchen was essential. Along side the filing cabinet, we installed a tool center that included supplies (scissors, stamps envelopes, pens etc) which would enable Heinrich to clip and address for mailing immediately the clippings. These strategies for organizing these new spaces had a dramatic effect. When Heinrich's dear mother passed, he was able to view his situation with a bit of PERSPECTIVE. Heinrich realized that his mother had kept the family connected by her clipping hobby -- sending cards, clippings and other materials to the now widespread family living in Austria, Germany, Texas and NY. The positive aspects of keeping the family connected had driven Heinrich to continue the hobby, resulting in his inability to FOCUS setting the course to achieve his baking dreams. He recognized that he could remain connected as effectively with the rest of the family via cell phones and email -- and returned to his love of baking. For Heinrich, understanding the cause of his clutter was the key to redirecting the behavior that encouraged the piles. A HAPPY ENDING
Some months later, I happened to run into Heinrich at the Suffolk County Fair. He told me that his life had turned completely around, that he no longer was in the clipping business, and that he was "full time focused" on refining his baking recipes. The judges at the fair announced that Heinrich's strudel had won first prize, and he gave me the cake as a gesture of appreciation. One of the great pleasures of professional organizing is to visualize the tangible results, and then to actually witness them develop.
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